A Year in Crime in the Mission

Violent crime, including assaults, robberies, and homicides decreased slightly in the Mission this year, while shootings and property theft increased, according to data from the Mission police station.

While numbers from this year are not much different than last year, they are a big improvement from 2008. The Mission police station is also in charge of patrolling the Castro and northwest part of Noe Valley.

The decrease for this year shows that crime has stabilized, according to Mission Police Captain Greg Corrales.

“We are going in the right direction,” Corrales said. “We are never satisfied. Even though it was not a huge reduction, every time there is less crime, it’s encouraging.”

Violent crime decreased by five percent, to 533 incidents this year from 559 incidents in 2009.

The number of reported personal theft incidents, however, has been steadily increasing and jumped 37 percent to 1,984 this year from 1,440 in 2008.

Some of the increase reflects the ability of victims to now file police reports online, a service police began offering in 2004, said Corrales.

Increase in Shootings

Shootings are the highest they have been in the past three years. In 2008 there were 15 shootings, last year there were 13 and this year there were 20, which represents a 54 percent increase from last year.